While the hinge art is well developed and hinges can be found in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and mechanical interactions, the mounting of a door in a door frame by hinges frequently poses problems even to date.
In general, a door hinge can comprise a pair of hinge elements with interfitting eyes traversed by a pintle inserted from one side of the hinge and traversing the alternating eyes so as to pivotally interconnect the two elements.
The eyes are formed on mounting flanges with screw holes through which screws can be passed to engage the door or the door frame. These hinges can only be mounted in predetermined orientations with respect to the door or frame edges and frequently cannot be used if the hinge of the door is to be reversed, i.e. the hinges on the left-hand side of the door are to be transferred to the right-hand side or vice versa.
In general, the hinge systems must be constructed for either right-hand or left-hand use.
It has already been proposed to provide door frames, door panel and hinge arrangements for such door assemblies which can be utilized in a left-hand construction as well as a right-hand construction. Earlier systems in which the hinge was designed to accommodate either right-handed or left-handed mounting, have proved to be expensive and difficult to use to the point that the hanging of a door depending upon the direction in which the door was to swing, could be a relatively complex, expensive and time-consuming problem.